Chapter Eighteen One Shock After Another

  The west of the city was bustling, with troops from Yunnan province holding torches and moving back and forth in the camp. Due to the power plant workers who supported the Nationalist government cutting off the power supply, refusing to provide electricity for the warlords anymore, the entire city of Guangzhou fell into darkness.

  At midnight, the sound of artillery fire came from the downstream direction of the Pearl River. An Yi initially thought it was the explosion of a dynamite package. After listening carefully, although the explosion was deafening, it seemed to have some order, so he thought it might be the explosion of large-caliber shells. The usual 75mm mountain guns and field artillery would not make such a loud noise. An Yi had seen the scene of trial firing of corrected artillery on the Yunnan army's position many times, and was very familiar with the sound of 75mm shells, which was far from having such an earth-shaking momentum.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, in less than ten minutes, a military officer-like person ran past Qu Lianchang's car and loudly reported on the battle situation: The attempt by the Third Army and Ninth Division to cross the river and occupy the Da Yuanshuai Mansion and Huangpu Military Academy on the opposite bank had failed. The navy's twelve warships of all sizes opened fire on the troops crossing the river, causing heavy casualties for the Third Army and Ninth Division. Commander Yang was extremely angry and had no choice but to issue an order to stop the crossing.

  An Yi secretly praised himself, lit a cigarette in the driver's cab again, and waited for the soldiers to load the goods. In his heart, he sneered at Qu Lianchang, who had a pig-like brain, for talking about special military supplies: When the first box was loaded, the unique, slightly greasy smell of opium smoke had already told An Yi what kind of goods they were, and he also knew that the Yunnan army had a long-standing habit of smoking opium. More than 80% of the officers and soldiers of the Yunnan army, from top to bottom, could not do without opium smoke, and almost everyone carried two guns - one of which was a smoke gun. An Yi often saw smokers lying on the ground in various camps, soft as invertebrates when they had an addiction, but once they smoked, their spirits were immediately lifted, and at this time, they would not hesitate to go up a knife mountain or down a fire sea.

  The right car door opened silently, and a long pig head stretched into the car: "Little boy, as a homeless rabbit, are you worthy of fighting with me? Take it!"

  Two packs of "Lao Dao" cigarettes were thrown next to An Yi's buttocks, and An Yi had already returned to normal. He chuckled and picked them up, stuffing them into his pocket: "You want me to help you hide things again, huh?"

  "Shh—"

  "Take a look around, quickly get on the car, and say to An Wei in a low voice: "This time Commander Yang has spent a lot of money, taking out top-grade 'cloud soil' to reward each brother with four taels, plus five yuan for each person. For battalion commanders and above, each person gets one catty of high-quality Indian tobacco paste, which is a good product that can't be bought even with money! My big brother Yang just asked me to hide 60 catties of Indian tobacco paste immediately, as well as 1,500 yuan from 'surplus', ordering me to take it out of the Western Camp as quickly as possible, lest there be trouble. Brother, this time it's up to you, wait for me and Zhang to secretly move it up later, you're in charge of finding a place on the car to hide it and bring it out, if we succeed, I'll reward you with 10 yuan, how about it?"

  An Yi hesitated for a moment, seeing Qu Pangzi was about to get angry, then said in a low voice: "Alright, you've taken good care of me for so long, just now I saw someone die and got stimulated, which made you angry, but you didn't blame me and even gave me cigarettes. I feel uneasy about it, so just give me five big coins, more than that would make me embarrassed to take."

  With a loud whoop, he slapped An Yi's thigh with his palm, not caring that An Yi was gritting his teeth in pain: "Good brother! I didn't misjudge you, good! Since you're so loyal, after we finish fighting, I'll secretly let you go back, even if the sky falls, I'll take the blame!"

  "Thank you, Brother Qu! Little brother thanks you!" An Yi sincerely bowed and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, tore open the packaging paper, pulled out one to offer to Qu Pangzi. However, Qu Pangzi quickly opened the door and got off the car, disappearing in an instant.

  Less than three minutes. Qu Baozi and his accomplice rushed to the side of the car. An Yi had already lifted up the seat cushion, waiting for a long time. Three beautifully packaged cigarette cases with red and black English letters were quickly stuffed into the small space under the seat cushion. Qu Baozi disappeared again and reappeared soon after, handing over a heavy canvas bag to An Yi. An Yi took it and neatly stacked it in the last bit of space. He covered the seat cushion, tightened the four screws, and pulled hard several times until it was secure. Only then did Qu Baozi let out a sigh of relief, wiping away the cold sweat on his forehead. He nodded in appreciation at An Yi, took a quick glance at the car compartment, and got into the car, closing the door behind him. He urged An Yi to start the car and leave the camp.

  The main gate of the big camp had long been chaotic and did not follow the procedure to check the pass. An officer-like person led a squad of soldiers guarding both sides of the gate. Seeing the familiar Chevrolet truck, he waved his hand impatiently, letting the car go quickly. Turning onto the road, they crossed two narrow cross streets. The West Camp was already far behind them. Qu Baozi finally let out a deep breath and relaxed completely.

  "Damn it. Got me all sweaty... Kid, turn left. Head to the small north gate, Yang Dage's fourth wife's place. We need to unload the stuff. Then we'll rush to the Longyan Cave Array in the eastern suburbs."

  The stout man leaned forward and carefully identified the road. Fortunately, the headlights of the car were quite bright, so he didn't have to strain his eyes too much.

  An Yi nodded. At the crossroads, he turned left. As soon as they entered the straight road, they heard a burst of artillery shells whizzing through the sky with a long, sharp whistle. Immediately afterwards, a series of explosions erupted from the direction of Xiaobei Gate. Flames and thick smoke billowed into the air. Qu Baozi was so frightened that he shouted for the driver to stop the car.

  Quǎo pàng zǐ kāi fēi kuài pá shàng chē dǐng. Chóng chóng duò le liǎng jiǎo kuài sù huí dào jià shǐ shì: wán le. Zhěng tiáo xiǎo xiàng dōu wán le! yī dìng shì cóng jiāng duì miàn fā shè de jiàn pào. bǎ liú zhèn huàn de guì jūn zhǐ huī bù dà lóu quán hōng tān le. xiǎo xiàng gēn zhe zāo cān. sì yí tài kǒng pà yě méi mìng le…… kuài tuì huí qù xiǎo zǐ. kuài tuì! kuài diǎn er lí kāi zhè guǐ dì fāng. yào yī pào zá xià lái lián gǔ tou dōu zhǎo bù dào.

  An Yi quickly reversed the car, turned at the intersection and headed east. Just over 40 meters out, a heavy artillery shell exploded with a deafening crash at the intersection behind him, sending shrapnel and rocks flying everywhere, pounding against the car body with loud "pops", scaring An Yi pale-faced as he frantically accelerated to escape.

  As they drove out of the east city and into the quiet suburban dirt road, An Yi slowed down slightly, looked at Qu Bozi who was panicking in the passenger seat and asked: "Brother Qu, with so many valuable goods under my butt, you need to find a place to move them to, having them on the car makes me feel uneasy."

  "Think I don't want to find a safe place to hide? For these sixty pounds of opium and a bag of silver, I deliberately sent the brothers who were escorting the car away. Who knew it wouldn't work out as planned?! Damn it, no wonder your old man said I should be careful for the next few days and not be greedy... Listen up, kid, when we get to Dragon Eye Cave later, don't drive too close to the front. It's almost dawn, and who knows when a fight might break out? This car is a big target, if a few more shells come flying in, there won't even be anywhere to hide! Our lives will be gone, what use are opium and silver then?! Got it?"

  "I remembered, I couldn't ask for more."

  Half an hour later, An Yi drove the car to a small hill behind the front-line position, about 500 meters away, and stopped in front of the command post. Qu Baozi jumped out of the car and loudly reported to General Hu Siyun that the tobacco had arrived. Hu Siyun, with a expressionless face and a messy beard, nodded and waved his hand towards the rear. Dozens of officers and soldiers quickly ran towards the carriage and in the blink of an eye, they unloaded the entire truckload of nearly two tons of Yunnan tobacco.

  Qu Pengzi bowed and bid farewell, but before he could turn around, Hu Siyun called out to him: "You, drive the car to the sawmill one kilometer behind the mountain and wait for orders. This car has its uses, be ready to receive my instructions at any time."

  "Yes, yes... I obey..."

  Under the gaze of Hu Si's sharp eyes, Qu Baozi felt a chill run down his spine and could only obey, getting on the car with a bad temper and yelling at An Yi to drive to the sawmill, scolding and cursing all the way, asking about every female member of Hu Si's family.

  An Yi was secretly bitter, he really didn't want to wait for death in such a dangerous place. The heavy artillery shell that just exploded near the small north gate still made his ears buzz, and the sense of relief from narrowly escaping death was immediately replaced by another unpredictable fear. However, at this point, he had no choice but to listen to heaven and pray that God would bless him with longevity.

  As soon as the car stopped, a burst of deafening cannon fire erupted, scaring Qu Baozi into shouting and directing An Wei to quickly back the car into a recess in the mountain. An Wei followed his instructions and parked the car at the edge of the nearly vertical mountain, and before he could catch his breath, he was shaken by flames flying overhead: the Yunnan army's artillery had opened fire, with shells whizzing over the small hill and pounding the revolutionary army's position to the east.

  About ten minutes later, the artillery fire stopped, and intense machine gun fire and grenade explosions erupted. Chants of slogans could be heard from time to time.

  Qu Baozi pulled An Yi down from the carriage, and the two of them secretly climbed up a small hill, crouching beside a large rock to look eastward. All they saw was rolling smoke and shouts filling the fields, as the revolutionary army and Yunnan army had been fiercely battling for some time.

  "Qu Da Ge, the front line you chose is great! Longyan Cave town is surrounded by stone hills on both sides, and this road is just between the two mountains. The entire width seems to be less than 1.5 kilometers. Your Yunnan army's position is excellent. I've walked this road before, it's the main highway leading to Dongguan and directly connecting to Jiulong. The railway visible from a distance isn't far away either. It's the only land passage for counties and towns in the east and south to enter Guangzhou City. If we break through here, we can basically see Guangzhou City. Is there a small river in front of your position?" An Yi asked curiously.

  He nodded: "That's right, it's a small river, only four or five meters wide. The stone bridge was blown up by us, and I went there a few days ago and have an impression. This year the drought has dried up the river, and both sides of the river are steep riverbanks over two meters high. The dry riverbed is all muddy, even if the Huangpu troops risk their lives to jump down, not many can climb up to this bank, let alone with so many machine guns welcoming them."

  "Wait! You said the troops advancing in front are the Huangpu Army?" An Yi asked anxiously.

  "Damn it, can't you see the Whampoa Military Academy flag and their respective regimental flags? They must have lost hundreds of men in this hour. Look, they're retreating now, haha... Alright, let's go down, I haven't eaten a meal since last night, my legs are shaking with hunger. There's a field kitchen south of the sawmill that serves temporary personnel like us, let's go eat a frontline meal, even if it's just a bowl of porridge to hold us over for half a day."

  An Yi watched as the smoke dispersed and the battlefield gradually calmed down, shaking his head in distress. He followed Qu Baozi down the mountain, walking around piles of wood with a heavy heart until they reached the cooking squad. He picked up a large bowl and directly scooped up the thin porridge from the wooden bucket, tilting his head back to drink it. He drank three bowls before putting down the bowl, looking up at the gloomy sky as he waited for Qu Baozi.

  Qu Baozi ate his fill, picked up a opium pipe leaning against the wall in the corner of someone's unknown, an older soldier fawned on him to light it for him to smoke, this opium was smoked until noon.

  At 4:00 pm, the Huangpu army launched a fierce attack again. After an hour and twenty minutes of intense fighting, they were repelled by the Yunnan army once more. An Yi lay on the mountain ridge, gazing out at the corpses scattered across the battlefield, his heart aching with sorrow but unable to come up with a plan. Instead, he discovered that Hu Siyun, the commander of the Yunnan army, was indeed a skilled and fearless leader. He had set up his command post just 500 meters behind the front lines, cleverly choosing a location on the back side of a mountain ridge, out of range of the Huangpu army's artillery and machine guns. Meanwhile, he could use his signalmen to transmit orders at any time.

  Night fell, and Qu Baozi, who was anxious to the point of stamping his feet, wanted to leave but didn't dare to. His temper became extremely violent, and he scolded An Yi to go to the temporary transit warehouse next to the cooking class to bring back that pile of rags. He wanted to smoke opium under the bed.

  An Yi worried that Qu Maozi's nicotine addiction would cause emotional instability, and indeed it did. He could only follow orders without daring to disobey slightly. He carried back a large bundle of tattered and colorful rags to the side of the car, spreading them out one by one to lay under Qu Maozi. What An Yi found extremely ironic was that among these rags were two Nationalist Party flags and one national flag, all of which were now being pressed down by Qu Maozi's smelly body.

  A sleepless night passed, the sky gradually turned gray and white, Hu Siyun didn't give any orders to let An Yi go out, but Qu Baozi, who woke up three times during the night and smoked two pipes of opium, slept more soundly than a pig. An Yi's growling stomach could only get him to walk to the cooking squad, where he saw that except for the old soldier, everyone else was still asleep, so he could only find a relatively clean coarse bowl, fill it with some leftover rice from last night's ammunition transport team and make do with it.

  Several bowls of thin porridge went down the belly, **swelling up**, An Yi belched while walking to the west side of the ditch, unbuttoning his pants and pulling out his old number two, feeling comfortable and relieved as he urinated, thinking that this pee was unprecedentedly refreshing.

  The grass in the ditch suddenly moved, and An Yi, who was startled, didn't have time to react. A black, cold shotgun was already pressed against his little brother's head: "Don't make a sound, or I'll shoot you dead!"

  PS: New book needs recommendations and collections during this period, let's work hard!